The present invention relates generally to monitoring performance of interactive automated customer applications and more particularly to monitoring performance of an interactive voice response (IVR) system.
Interactive voice response (IVR) systems allow an individual to interact with a database related system to acquire information and/or perform transactions associated with the database by telephone and/or by other data networks such as the Internet. IVR systems allow transactions to occur without interaction with user agents. For example, banks and credit card companies use IVR systems so that their customers can receive up-to-date account information instantly and easily without having to speak directly to a person.
IVR systems typically receive input information by presenting scripted requests for information to users and allowing users to answer questions either verbally or by pushing the numbers on a touch-tone telephone. Frequently, IVR systems will present a series of menus to a user, allowing the user to select various options. Additionally, users may enter other input information, such as an account number and a personal authorization code. The various menus and requests for input information occur by executing a script or program. Clearly, such scripts or programs can be quite complex.
To determine how well an IVR application is serving callers, IVR systems have utilized frequency analysis. Specifically, IVR applications measure the number of times that specific options are selected. For example, a banking IVR application may measure the number of times that customers select menu options associated with account balance inquiry, funds transfer, stop payment request, and/or the like. Although this information is useful for analyzing application performance, it is quite limited.
The present invention is directed to a system and method which analyze how well caller goals are achieved in interactive voice response applications. The IVR applications may accept speech, touch tone, or other inputs. The system and method preferably identify the potential points of the beginning, the completion, the incompletion, and failure of each goal. These points within the application call flow may be selected during the application design. During the programming of the application, certain data about each goal event is preferably specified to be recorded to the application platform storage media. A reporting tool is preferably used to aggregate and summarize the data, giving the efficiency results needed to understand the performance of the IVR application.
The present invention recognizes that caller goals frequently span multiple events. Thus, the present invention is able to analyze how well IVR applications perform with respect to interrelated events of a discrete goal, rather than simply measuring the number of times that a single menu option is selected.
The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technical advantages of the present invention in order that the detailed description of the invention that follows may be better understood. Additional features and advantages of the invention will be described hereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the invention. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. It should also be realized by those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The novel features which are believed to be characteristic of the invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages will be better understood from the following description when considered in connection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expressly understood, however, that each of the figures is provided for the purpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as a definition of the limits of the present invention.